Drachma, silver coin of ancient Greece, dating from about the mid-6th century bc, and the former monetary unit of modern Greece. The drachma was one of the world’s earliest coins. Its name derives from the Greek verb meaning “to grasp,” and its original value was equivalent to that of a handful of arrows. The early drachma had different weights in different regions. From the 5th century bc, Athens gained commercial preeminence, and the Athenian drachma became the foremost currency. One drachma equaled 6 oboli; 100 drachmas equaled 1 mine; and 60 mine equaled 1 Attic talent.

Various modern 100 drachma coins.

Iago4096

As a result of the conquests of Alexander the Great, the Athenian drachma came to be the monetary unit of the Hellenistic world. In time, silver coins of one drachma and its multiples were debased, and progressively higher proportions of copper were admixed. The drachma also became the prototype of an Islamic coin—the dirham. Nevertheless, as foreign invaders gained control in Greece, the drachma disappeared from use.

When Greece finally achieved its independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1828, the phoenix was introduced as the monetary unit; its use was short-lived, however, and in 1832 the phoenix was replaced by the drachma, adorned with the image of King Otto, who reigned as modern Greece’s first king from 1832 to 1862. The drachma was divided into 100 lepta. In 2002 the drachma ceased to be legal tender after the euro, the monetary unit of the European Union, became Greece’s sole currency.

Learn More in these related articles:

in coin

...with him in Aegina. They began no earlier than the late 7th century, when Aeginetan maritime ascendancy was growing, incidentally spreading the Aeginetan weight standard for coinage, based on a drachma of about six grams, over much of the Peloponnese and also the Aegean, where similar currency was produced in the islands. Ambition and pride stimulated two neighbouring powers to strike their...

...known as talents, were originally a unit of weight of roughly 55 to 60 pounds (more than 25 kg); talents were later used as a measure of value. The discovery of an iron bar with a handful (drachma) of fractional iron spits (obeloi) dedicated in the Heraeum (a temple of the goddess Hera) at Argos, perhaps as part of King Pheidon of Argos’ reforms of weights and measures in...

...Solon, on taking office in Athens in 594 bc, did institute a partial debasement of the currency. For the next four centuries (until the absorption of Greece into the Roman Empire) the Athenian drachma had an almost constant silver content (67 grains of fine silver until Alexander, 65 grains thereafter) and became the standard coin of trade in Greece and in much of Asia and Europe as well....

External Links

Britannica Web sites

A former monetary unit of Greece, the drachma can trace its history to the 7th century BC. Its name derives from the Greek word "to grasp," and its original value was equivalent to that of a handful of iron bars. The early drachma was minted in several city-states, which resulted in different weights and appearances of the coin. From the 5th century BC, Athens gained commercial superiority, and the Athenian drachma became the foremost currency. As a result of the conquests of Alexander the Great, the Athenian drachma came to be the monetary unit of the Hellenistic world. Over time, the drachma lost its value, and the currency disappeared altogether during the period of the Roman Empire. When Greece became independent from Turkey in 1828, the phoenix was introduced as the monetary unit to symbolize Greece rising from the ashes, but the coin was quickly replaced by the drachma in 1833. High inflation rates debased the currency throughout most of the 20th century, and in 1941, 1,200 drachma equaled one British pound. In an effort to curb inflation, the currency was devalued by three zeroes being taken off of every bill. The unit became obsolete when, like 11 other members of the European Monetary Union, Greece adopted the euro as its national currency in 2002. (See also European Monetary Union; European currency unit.)